The Book Thief Essay

Historically, people have used literacy to obtain political power. In the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, it is evident that books, reading, and words themselves represent power for different characters in different ways. Close analysis of Liesel Meminger and Max Vandenburg reveals that power can be achieved through literacy in a context where literacy is severely limited. Literacy plays a major role in Liesel’s adolescence. Liesel obtains power through literacy as it gives her a sense of comfort and control. The act of reading and writing gives Liesel the strength to cope with and heal from her emotional trauma. Reading and finishing the book The Gravedigger’s Handbook helps Liesel find the courage to move on from the loss of her…show more content…

Although Liesel does not like to reflect on her previous struggles, she proceeds to do so anyways. The “process of writing [is] helpful for her” (Lee 21) and is a coping strategy as it helps Liesel express her emotions and lets out her inner anger and sadness through the act of writing. Moreover, literacy provides Liesel a sense of control. Literacy empowers Liesel by giving her a voice when she is powerless. Liesel becomes an autonomous individual and begins to see the world in its reality. While at the book burning, Liesel learns the reality that parents are communists and that it is Hitler who had them taken away from her. Liesel yells to Hans that she “‘hate[s] the Führer’” (Zusak 115) which suggests that she is developing her individuality and that she is beginning to see the reality of society. Also, Liesel breaks the rules by reading a book that is specifically meant to be burned as a voice “against the culture of Nazi Germany” (Lee 9). It is Liesel’s passion for reading that pushes her to steal a book from the book burning. Liesel’s act of rebellion demonstrates her taking control over herself, rather than the Nazis having control over her. Book burnings are a symbol of power and authority and are made for “destroying ideas” (American Experience para. 2). Book burnings are to remind German citizens who is in power and are meant to burn any knowledge that does not relate to Hitler’s way of thinking. Liesel gains individual

Related Documents

Summary of Plot
Author Markus Zusak sums up the story of protagonist Liesel Meminger, a young girl residing in Nazi Germany, in his fictional novel The Book Thief. Narrated by death himself, the novel highlights significant events from the perspective of a usual being. The story develops an awareness to the struggles of the girl. This includes how her character progresses in light of the traumatic events she experiences throughout her young life. By the end of the novel, it is apparent in the growth…

The book, The Book Thief is set in one of the darkest time periods of the entire world, World War II or The Holocaust. The main character, Liesel, has lost everyone and everything she ever knew, and she has to learn to live her new life in a new area. Throughout this journey she makes new friends and family, makes a new life, and she learns how powerful words are. In The Book Thief, Mark Zusak shows how words are powerful enough to create friendship, give freedom, and overshadow hate.
Through various…

The two books by Markus Zusak and Paulo Coelho tells the stories of two characters, Liesel Meminger and Santiago, each in their own respective stories. In The Alchemist, Santiago’s story is a much lighter tale with an overall optimistic and adventurous air. He journeys from Spain all the way to Egypt and back before his adventure ends. Zusak’s The Book Thief, sharply contrasts Coelho’s story with the much darker and dangerous world of Nazi Germany.
In The Alchemist, Coelho begins Santiago’s journey…

“From the toolbox the boy took out, of all things, a teddy bear. He reached in through the torn windshield and placed it on the pilot's chest.”“The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.”“Then they discovered she couldn't read or write.”“Unofficially, it was called the midnight class, even though it commenced at around two in the morning. ““The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places it was burned. There…

Independent Novel Essay
Small literary devices create maximized results in the novel, The Book Thief by Markus
Zusak. Zusak’s novel is about a young girl, named Liesel Meminger, who after losing her
brother was given away by her mother to a couple from Mochling, Germany, named Hans and
Rosa Hubermann. The Hubermann’s raise Liesel well, helping her through chaos she went
through, as Liesel made friends, like her best friend and unknown lover, Rudy Steiner. As Liesel
explores her love of books and her thrive…

another” (Hemingway). The Book Thief and Slaughterhouse Five have many similarities, but also differences throughout the books. Death is present in each book and talked about throughout, in The Book Thief, Death is the narrator and takes us through time as the war is going on. Slaughterhouse Five is very different, death is something Billy, the main character, does not show feelings towards, he is able to move on very quickly from deaths. In Slaughterhouse Five and The Book Thief, death is shown and portrayed…

Children and The Book Thief
Brooklynn McLaughlin
ED 2900
Children’s Literature Paper
10/29/13
Children and The Book Thief
Imagine being taken away from family because of what they believe in and shipped off to random strangers where one is to live out the rest of their life without being told the reason why. The individual is also encouraged or forced to believe in and do things that their parents wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for them. They are also forced to watch as people who are different…

In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak wrote,“I am haunted by humans” (Zusak 550). Being narrated by Death, The Book Thief is a novel about an orphan, named Liesel Meminger, who moves in with the Hubermanns in Himmel (Heaven) Street. While she is there, she plunders books from libraries and book burnings during the horrors of World War II. Liesel Meminger’s desire to read helps her deal with the incidents around her and gain insight about the power of words, while her insecurity helps her create connections…

The Book Thief
“Even death has a heart.” (The Book Thief, pg 242) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a book of death, love, and survival. There is the death of a friend, love of a parent, and survival of those who can take it. World War II was a devastating period and many did not have the mental strength to survive it. The Book Thief is about Liesel Meminger and all her accounts with death and how she coped with it, how she survives it all through words. The book is narrated by Death, and throughout…

Draft Essay
The historical fiction novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak takes place in Nazi Germany. Although Nazi Germany is often only associated with the intolerance and persecution of Jews and other Holocaust victims, this novel is about an everyday, ordinary citizen of Germany. Death narrates the tale of this ordinary citizen, a young girl named Liesel Meminger. Throughout the novel Liesel learns to read, love, and understand the power of words from her gentle foster father and a few books she…